


The Likelyhood of Existence

by SuniMoon



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: As in poly not threesomes, Asexual Carlos, Asexual Carlos remains the same, CyberVale AU, Gen, M/M, Potential Cecil/Earl/Carlos, Robot and human romance minus the boinking, Though perhaps Earl and CECIL are more interested in that, not certain, not certain listeners
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-12 19:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1195995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuniMoon/pseuds/SuniMoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos had been called to the colony, to the core, to support CECIL, and in doing so, support the small planet itself.<br/>It could be said CECIL itself was one of the most scientifically interesting androids in the entire galaxy... It could also be said that the core crew of the colony was a tight knit community, protecting its own, so it wasn't as if anyone from the outside had really studied the android to begin with.</p>
<p>Carlos was begining to see why.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Or, I toss another fic onto the Cyber Vale pile, this time with a CECIL that does not know how to human, and a Carlos who sometimes feels lost in that department as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

  * For [freedomconvicted](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freedomconvicted/gifts), [AughtPunk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AughtPunk/gifts).



> Hello everyone, I have had some ideas bubbling in my head for awhile, and wanted to give this a shot. The original Cyber Vale AU, of course, belongs to Freedom Convicted, my love for their idea almost rivals my love for WTNV itself. Elements in this fic borrowed from Hubris_And_Crafts, mostly because I just don't know how to name things.
> 
> This first chapter serves more as an intro then anything, but I promise we will actually meet CECIL in the following chapter.
> 
> Fic is not beta'd, I appologize

“Shuttle 104 will begin boarding now at gate B2”  
  
Carlos rolled his neck, setting down the tablet in his hand. The wait had certainly been long enough, his original shuttle having been delayed, and rescheduled, leaving him stranded at the port for several long hours…  
Long enough to pour over the papers again and again, reminding himself why, exactly, he was uprooting his whole life for this.  
To be fair, his “whole life” hadn’t been much lately.  
The possessions he kept with him filled one checked suitcase, containing clothing and electronics, old and new.  
Tucked in the pockets and zippered pouches were books, chords, and memory cards, both personal and business.  
  
He did still had his family, the mother he could always call home to, his older brother, his sister, who was just accepted into her first choice of college… But he had been living a planet away from them so long that theirs was not the home he was leaving anymore.  
  
He chose to ignore the boarding sign flashing, and the voice on the intercom. It would be another ten minutes until his rows boarded anyway… He took off his glasses, wiping his eyes, then glanced through the foggy haze of his vision at the seats surrounding him, before finally wiping the lenses on his shirt and shoving them back up the bridge of his nose.

  
There were a few families seated near… And workers, business men…  Many were returning home, returning _from_ visits to their old homes, or important ventures… He’s sure a few are like him, setting foot on that man-made land for the first time in their lives… But he very much doubted any were being sent to work at the core, with the AI itself.  
  
He had read about the Vale Colony in school.  It was one of the most successful projects of its kind, an artificial planet lit by a small, man made, sun. For all intents and purposes, it was a new earth, though smaller.  
There were other projects out there like it; other planets, other massive ships… but the AI controlling it had been both its largest risk, and its crowning achievement.

  
C.E.C.I.L was the thing that kept the planet up and running.  
C.E.C.I.L was what he was there for, the computer he was qualified to work with.  
  
At this moment, tucking his tablet away and slinging his carry-on over his shoulder, he did not feel that qualified at all. If anything, he was overwhelmed. Not by the android itself, but by the planet it controlled, and by the people rising from their seats around him, boarding their flight home.  
  
Artificial Intelligence could be, putting it lightly, a controversial subject…  
  
Mankind still hadn’t, and probably never would, leave this galaxy, but it hadn’t stopped them from expanding, terraforming, and stretching the limits of human ingenuity.  
Humanity had clogged up the Earth, terraformed planets beyond it, gone past stars they previously never dreamt of reaching, and still never encountered intelligent life beyond them.  
Instead, the human race was _creating_ new intelligent life.  
Sort of…  Hence the controversy.  
Most older AI was of no worry. The early technology dated back centuries, and no one would question the intelligence of an antique smart phone. Nor would they question the consciousness of early robots, despite their human like appearances, brought to life with silicone, never finding their way out of uncanny valley… But recent developments in robotics lead to ethical concerns… What counted as sentience, etc, etc.  
  
It was a headache, honestly. The cases of actual sentient AI were few and far between.  
For the most part, they were just good programs being anthropomorphized by adoring people.

People always see what they want to see, they project onto objects, and on to animals…  
 And Carlos had seen it before, countless times, with his own androids.  
  
He was told how life -like they were, how high functioning the programs were, the androids themselves had nicknames, they were beloved, and _still_ beloved by the himself and the others who worked on them…  But they weren’t alive. They responded, they did as they were told, as they were programed to do.  They had no sense of self.  
That wasn’t to say sentient AI didn’t exist, or couldn’t. There were several documented cases, and he’d gotten to meet one of such machines before. Even then, Carlos couldn’t say for sure what he thought of the program… If it was conscious or if it was just… glitching out…  
  
It was to safe to say most people never _intended_ to create sentient AI.  
And the documented cases never ended well. They were too often reprogrammed before they were fully studied, or they were accidently corrupted, their self-awareness lost... Consciousness wasn’t stable. It was one deleted file, one corrupt program away from nothingness.  
  
So to hear recently, how the core of the colony viewed C.E.C.I.L, and to an extent, K.E.V.I.N., as alive, as human… Well, he’s surprised an outsider would be allowed in to study the AI, and “look after it” as Pamela Winchell had said in the email. Outsiders didn’t get in to the core much these days. The colony protected its secrets.  
  
Shaking himself out of thought, Carlos pulled a small pillow out of his bag as he came to his seat, before tucking the overstuffed backpack under.  
It would be a long flight, fourteen hours until he reached his final stop, all after spending several days between ports and on ships before this. His final flight was just the descent to the planet itself.  
  
If only space travel could be as quick and easy as the films his great grandfather had watched said it would be. _Light speed._ Well wouldn’t _that_ be a treat.  
The sooner someone came up with a safe and at all possible way to teleport, the better.  
  
Reaching his new home would be a relief, and since he didn’t start work for two more days, he would even have time to sleep the jetlag off. He hadn’t the faintest idea what time it was in the colony anyway…   
  
He settled into his aisle seat, waiting for the attendant to come by with water and overpriced food.  
An economy seat meant cramped quarters and only the bare necessities, but with at least two more hours charge on his tablet, he could amuse himself a bit before digging for one of his books… Or he could look over the job description _just one more time_ before falling asleep.

 

\------  
  
“Hey..? Sir? … Sir?”  
  
Carlos wearily lifted his head, making a “hmm” noise as he rubbed his eyes, and searched his lap for his glasses.  
  
It was that moment when he went to move that he finally noticed the delicate hand on his shoulder, outstretched from the seat across the aisle.  
  
“I’m very sorry to wake you, but they just announced that a cart’s coming back by, and they said something about free snacks this time… I just didn’t want you to miss it, since you slept through the last one…” a small voice told him, a voice belonging to the young woman who the outstretched arm was attached to.  
  
“Oh, uh, thanks….” He murmured, still half asleep, though a cup of water sounded very appealing right now, a foul taste in his mouth, despite what he assumed was only a short nap.  
  
The girl was much younger than him, presumably his sisters age. Her skin was dark, her eyes a warm brown, with a small but vibrant smile. She was petite, with a somewhat chubby frame, and she currently hugged a purple hoodie around her like a blanket.  
  
“You’re welcome,” she said again, twisting in her seat to look behind her, “but I might have woke you too soon, these carts take forever… My name is Dana, by the way.”  
  
“Carlos”, he responded, twisting in his seat as well, both to peer back at the cart, and then to shake the girls hand.  
  
“Ah...” She smiled again. “Is this going to be your first time at the colony?”, she asked, as she glanced at his backpack poking out from under the chair, and noticed the papers detailing his living quarters, that he had shoved hastily in the front pocket before departure.  
  
“What- uh, yes” he stuttered, as he shoved the paperwork into his bag, concerned about losing them, as about drawing further attention to himself. “Do you live on the colony?” He asked her, as he zipped the pocket closed and kicked the bag back under.  
  
“My whole life,” she chirped, “My family moved there before I was born, it was just my grandfather and my mom then, mom moved there to work at the core. It’s its own city down there, very different from the residential areas on the surface.”  
  
“Does she still? I’m actually moving there to work at the core-“  
  
“What will you doing down there?”  
  
“Ah, um… I’m….” _Looking after it_ , as the email had so casually said, “uh… science.”  
  
“… Oh.” She responded, unsure what to say about such a vague job description, but smiling regardless… “Well, okay Mr. Scientist, that sounds exciting.”  
  
“Well, uh, robotics I mean,” Carlos stammered, internally smacking himself as he made his recovery. God knows how he got through so many presentations when he was either tripping over his own tongue, or rambling too long.  
  
“Oh!” She exclaimed, with renewed excitement, then her voice lowered as she leaned across the aisle… “You wouldn’t happen to be working with Cecil, would you? … I mean if that’s confidential don’t tell me, but I heard that-“  
  
“Food or drink?”, the attendant interrupted, as they rolled the cart closer, offering Dana a plastic cup, and her choice of beverage.  
  
“Oh, just water, thank you.” She smiled and nodded to the attendant, but leaned around them as they poured her drink, mouthing something to Carlos that he couldn’t quite make out.  
  
The attendant then repeated the same routine with Carlos’s aisle, he asked for water, and accepted the small snack platter, however unsure he was that it wouldn’t just be tacked on a bill later.

Only once the attendant was a few rows away did Dana lean over once more, telling him to “just nevermind the whole thing”, and that they would talk later, before she tore open the bag of chips she’d purchased, and settled back into her seat. It was somewhat a relief, since he technically _wasn’t_ supposed to disclose that information, at the time being, but the whole conversation struck him as odd.  
  
“So…” Carlos started, after the moments silence, “Did you happen to hear a landing time earlier?”  
  
“Only another four hours,” she murmured between bites “That’s what they told us… It’ll be good to be back home.”  
  
\----  
  
Carlos spent those next four hours in and out of sleep, chatting with Dana when he was awake to do so.  
  
He was fully awake with a renewed energy in the last half hour, as they prepared for landing…  
He could see the colony then, out the window. He knew the “planet” was small, but it seemed massive before him, and so _normal._ Towns and homes, roads crossing, crisp grass, plants, _humanity thriving_.

Of course, that wasn’t where he was heading. From the shuttle he would be staying in the station, passing security, and going down.  
  
He expected to meet those in charge, have his badge scanned a few times, and then settle in to his cot to unpack, and rest. If he was lucky, he would find somewhere to eat, and maybe, just maybe get a chance to go back to the surface and see what the colony had to offer for the individuals and families living up top.  
If not, at least Dana had mentioned a small pizzeria on one of the levels, though all of their products were gluten free.  
  
He picked up his checked bag, rolling it towards the elevators, and began to fumble through his backpack for the security badge he had received in advance. To his surprise Dana had followed, pulling a badge from her shirt as well. She was still bundled up in her purple hoodie, though this time she was actually wearing it as an article of clothing, rather than a blanket.  
 He noticed a sort of eye emblem on the shoulder of the hoodie that seemed familiar, but he could not quite place it.  
  
He didn’t know _why_ it came as such a surprise, having Dana accompany him down;  Dana had mentioned the core earlier. Later in the flight, she had spoken of her families living quarters, the sort of home she grew up in, her grandfather, her mother, her older brother…  She had even mentioned starting a new job herself, now that she was back… He’d assumed that she’d meant on the surface, but perhaps he’d been mistaken, or simply too tired to process what he’d heard.  
  
She got off just a few stops before him, wishing him the best of luck in “whatever science endeavor he embarked on.”  
  
He smiled and thanked her, wishing her the best of luck as well, in whatever it was that her new job entailed. Perhaps he would see her again, or perhaps her mother was still working in the core…  
He hoped so. He had never expected to be welcomed so warmly into the core.  
  
The elevator dinged again, as it reached its final destination, and the doors swung open.  
  
 _Just go find your cot, make yourself at_ _home_ , he thought to himself. _Don’t worry about the job yet.  
  
_ He took one step, on wobbly legs, out the door and felt the warmth from the surface, and from Dana, depart. It was sparse down there, like a military base. It was not warm, nor cold, and yet the air wasn’t homey or welcoming, or that “just right” temperature. If anything it _lacked_ substance.  
  
He was told the cots were comfortable enough, and the rooms had enough space to make them home like, but the halls before him, lined with doors… It was like an anthill down here, wasn’t it? He rolled his bag away from the elevator door, looking down the hall to the right, then to the left.  
And then, after pulling the printed papers out of his bag, he stared up at the purple security camera mounted above him, as if hoping someone might see his plight, and send a tour guide.  
But the camera was focused on nothing in particular. It was just harmless surveillance, in case something were to go on. Fairly standard in compounds like this…  
  
As he skimmed his paperwork for information, he had no real clue which way was up anymore, and since he had not been given a map or any real directions, he decided to take the hall to the right and hope for a sign directing him.  
  
…What he hadn’t noticed was how the high definition security cameras flickered to life, and followed him down the hall, lenses zooming in as he finally came upon a desk, and rang a bell.  
  
How they watched him adjust his glances, and have a silent conversation about his journey and his work.

The cameras could not hear.

On this level, they were only eyes, only doing their job, only keeping the colony safe.  
Or, at least, that was supposed to be their job.  
  
The lenses focused on the dark skinned man with the perfect hair, and perfect teeth.  
They scanned over the badge hanging from his lanyard, longing to put a voice to the face of this “Carlos”.  
  
The ever present gaze was only cut off as Carlos finally reached his room and settled in for the night.  
  
\----  
  
“Crew of the Vale Colony.  
  
A new man arrived at the core today, he was seen searching for his room on level  12…  
  
Who is he? What does he want from us?  
Why his perfect and beautiful haircut? Why his perfect and beautiful coat?

  
…My sources tell me that he is a **_scientist_** _.”_


	2. Indroductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It looks like this fic might update on a more bimonthly rate. It has been years since I have written anything, its taking a bit to get into the swing of things, though I have so many plans.
> 
> We'll be meeting Earl this chapter, and soon begin to establish his old relationship with CECIL, and perhaps make way for a new one.
> 
> I appologize to readers who may be here for ace Carlos, as it will take awhile for his asexuality to have any play in the fic, or in his romance with CECIL. Sorry about that, but it will come up eventually. Promise.

June 16th, 2293.  
  
Today would be his second full day in the Vale colony.   
Carlos awoke on his own at 07:00, having at last fallen into some semblance of routine, and overcoming his jetlag.  
  
As he propped himself up, the standard issue blankets felt unusually plush and warm around him, protecting and homey. He was already getting used to it, he thought to himself. Unlike yesterday, there was no surprise waking up, no question of where he was, or why he was there. He now rose from bed knowing just where he was, that _this_ is the place he would call home for at least the next year… and while it still felt more like a motel then a home, he was adjusting well to it.  
  
After his first paycheck he would probably head up to the city on the surface, to shop for himself.  
He had begun a small list last night… Better bedding, a hot plate to cook on, an electric kettle perhaps. It sure would beat the food down here, after that _dreadful_ experience with the pizza last night.  
  
Despite the high summer temperatures up top, it was a cool 66 degrees down here, not enough to be chilly, but enough to bundle up, and dread the feeling of his bare feet touching the cold floor.  
Wanting to avoid that for as long as possible, he _instead_ took the next ten minutes to lay in his cot, stare at the ceiling, and do his best imitation of a caterpillar withdrawing into a cocoon.  
  
Today was it. Today was the day.   
At 09:00 he would meet with the head of security, who would escort him on his first full tour of the labs, and to the center, the heart of the colony.  
  
Those inner chambers were under the highest security, and only those with the clearance needed had ever _actually_ seen C.E.C.I.L. in person. That hadn’t really dawned on Carlos before, how lucky he would be to even _see_ the android, let alone touch it, and _maintain_ it.  
  
For decades C.E.C.I.L had been isolated for both its own protection and the colonies safety. Sure, if C.E.C.I.L went down there were manual ways of completing its tasks, (it would be absurd to leave themselves completely at the mercy of this machine) but C.E.C.I.L.s brain streamlined everything.  
They would be in a state of emergency if it went down for more than 48 hours.  
  
Carlos sat himself up, stretching, and tossed his feet over the edge of the cot, breathing out with a hiss as his feet touched the cold floor. _A rug. He should buy a rug too. Or slippers._  
  
As doubtful as he was, the butterflies in his stomach were more excited than they were nervous, as they flitted about and tore up his insides… On second thought, perhaps such discomfort _did_ come from the nerves. Was excitement supposed to make him this sick?  
Or was he coming down with something? _Or was it the ‘pizza’ from the place down the hall?_  
That, or the travel could have _easily_ compromised his immune system, and that would be terrible on such an important day-  
  
 He tried to ignore his sleep addled brain, and shuffled over to his closet sized bathroom, splashing water on his face, and combing out his hair as he gave himself an internal pep talk.  
  
He earned this job. He was here because they _needed_ him, and only _kind of_ because he was closest to them in the galaxy, compared to others with similar qualifications.  
  
He was thankful for this job. This opportunity was what his LIFE had been leading up to.   
He dreamed of things like this, as a child.   
He had worked for this, he deserved it.  
  
Carlos closed the bathroom door behind him, and looked over his meager living quarters… The room was small, about the size of his bedroom back home. His cot was twin sized, and tucked into the wall, saving space in the main living area.  
Aside from that, it was barren. A few shelves, which he had yet to fill, a night stand with his charging devices… There was a table in the corner, where he’d haphazardly tossed his family photographs, and degrees, unsure what else to do with them; he didn’t want to damage the walls…  
His suit case was still on the floor beside the cot, sitting open, and he hoped to unpack the rest soon, before he tripped over it some night, on his way to the bathroom.  
  
Finally, his badge and coat hung over a hook beside the door, his own face on the badge staring back at him from the end of the lanyard. It was the first thing he reached for, after putting his shirt on, and tying his bowtie.   
He went straight for the lanyard, out of fear he would forget it, and in forgetting it lose his place here entirely, as absurd as it sounded.  
  
 _You are here for a reason. You are to maintain C.E.C.I.L., that means taking care of any anomalies in the program, or just being called down to replace parts. You will get to study what made the planet and its colony so successful, you might even get the chance to continue Dr. Palmers work where she left off.  
The people you’ve met here _ like _you so far, why are you worrying?_  
  
Just yesterday he had attended a short meeting with Pamela Winchell, regarding his place there.  
Sort of.  It had been scheduled in her office, at 11:00, but she had not been available, and so the meeting was merely an awkward discussion with one of her staffers, Trish Hidge, regarding his job and the papers that were _supposed_ to have been forwarded to him, but somehow slipped through the cracks.   
Trish was small, almost mousy, but oddly imposing. She had insisted that Winchell had important business to attend elsewhere, and that, with her job, it was ‘perfectly normal’ for her to just ‘up and vanish’ sometimes. ‘Often with no warning’, she had added, as if that was enough to dismiss him.  
  
Trish had, eventually, given him a brief run down… But as she lacked the proper clearance to even _know_ the information she had tried to read off, she concluded that their security officer would have to fill Carlos in on the rest.  
  
Needless to say, the meeting wasn’t much help.  
  
Adjusting his clothing, he stared in the mirror, with more focus on the space between him than on his reflection. After all this he still did not know _why_ they allowed an outsider…   
  
From what he’d gathered from Trish, there were recent abnormalities in C.E.C.I.L.S programming, and many members of its previous team had left altogether, requested transfers, or simply resigned. Previous technicians and programmers had stepped down, previous interns had left. Some had actually been laid off by Winchell herself.  
  
He was there because he was needed. They had no one else for the job, but _why?_  
  
He picked his tablet up off the bedside table, from its charging deck, and took a seat on his cot once more. He scrolled over the device, one handedly, using his other hand to pull on his socks.  
  
CECIL… CECIL… He swiped his fingers over the tablets lock, and went straight to his files, digging for images of the android, and of its control center…  
  
C.E.C.I.L. had been completed in the year 2217, making it 76 years since it was installed, back before the colony had its own stable population. Back when it was still a hopeful experiment, populated only by the families of those stationed there.  
  
Dr. Palmer had received endless praise and recognition for her creations, C.E.C.I.L. at the core of the small planet, helping to keep it stable, and K.E.V.I.N., with the much more dangerous job of monitoring the planets sun.   
  
Back then, when Dr. Palmer had been interviewed, she was never shy about future plans for her creations…  
A few sources stated that C.E.C.I.L. was supposed to operate wirelessly, to be able to assist in other areas of the colony, and to move where it was needed. That sort of thing just required more funding then they could get back then. It wasn’t a necessity, so few up at the top really supported it, despite Dr. Palmers enthusiasm…  
  
In the end it was easier for everything to be built up around the core, communities on the surface stretching out from that point, rather than work on wireless support.  
 Dr. Palmer passed away fifteen years into the colonies development, and there had been few changes to C.E.C.I.L.s programming, or its brothers, since.  
  
 _Glad K.E.V.I.N. isn’t mine,_ he thought. He’d heard rumors before, that it was a difficult program to work with.  
  
Carlos gazed at the photographs before him, the few nice ones he had, that had been released to the public, and published in articles…  
  
It really was a beautiful design.  The sleek metal shining, and the purples and greys contrasting on the robots humanoid frame made it a sight to see.  
He wondered if it had changed at all, since then. The newest photographs available were taken over twenty years ago… It wasn’t as if an android could age, but god knows what parts they may have changed out or refinished over the years. C.E.C.I.L. was outdated compared to modern androids, but there was something timeless about it… God, he hoped they hadn’t changed it too much.  
  
Carlos glanced up at the clock in the corner of his device, and smiled to himself, with an almost childish glee.   
In less than an hour he would find out for himself.  
  
No time to waste, he had to get himself ready. Their head of security wouldn’t want him running late, and he still needed to gather his things, eat his breakfast, and pull a pair of pants on over the boxers he was still lounging around in.

\---  
  
At exactly 09:00, Carlos stood by the elevator, his crisp and clean labcoat on, and his tablet tucked under his right arm. By now, the rest of the level was up and about, going to their jobs, visiting the surface, just going about their lives. It really was like an anthill down here, but he didn’t find it cramped at all.  
It was new to him, yes, and sometimes overwhelming, but he found such _thrill_ in it.  
He watched the numbers above the elevator, and waited, leaning in to adjust his bowtie in the near reflective gleam of the elevator doors.  
  
 _Dressed a little eccentric today, maybe, but your jobs secure. There’s no one, no one human at least, that you need to impress down there._  
  
The elevator dinged sharply, and he swiftly withdrew himself from his makeshift mirror, saving himself the embarrassment of bumping right into a complete stranger on their way back from their shift.  
  
The doors slid open, and several people disembarked, having come up from the lower levels.  
He shook his head to the young woman near the door, letting her know he was waiting for someone on the elevator, and not for the elevator itself.  
With another ding, she pressed the button to close the door, and Carlos continued his wait, finding his watch far more reliable than the clocks at the core.  
  
09:10, it read. He didn’t mind the head of security being late, on the contrary. It meant he made it there on time, and didn’t mess anything up this morning. He shifted his weight, and glanced up at the surveillance camera in the hall, the same one that he’d greeted his first day there…

It was strange, but he felt like it was _watching_ him lately, though it was probably nothing, just his imagination getting the best of him-  
That is, until he saw it turn sharply away when he looked directly at it, instead focusing on a fake potted plant in the hall.  
  
“-wait, who..?” Carlos gasped, stepping away from the elevator to follow the cameras line of vision.  
It was mounted near the ceiling, a steel frame with a purple hue… _It looks like C.E.C.I.L… does it control the cameras down here…?_  
  
Each time Carlos got in its line of sight, the camera would veer off again, as if it was trying to avoid him… No, it couldn’t be C.E.C.I.L., it was a person, someone was screwing with him, that had to be it-

  
“Are you Carlos..?”  
  
He leapt in surprise, nearly dropping his tablet, struggling with his balance. It was a mans voice that he heard behind him, who was standing in the doorway to the elevator to keep it open. He was in his early-forties, so far as Carlos could tell, and just a few inches taller than himself. He had deep auburn hair, peppered with grey, and his uniform and the stun gun holstered at his waist provided answer the first of Carlos’s questions. _(How do you know me?)_  
  
“Yes, that’s me, I’m sorry, officer…?”  
  
“Harlan” he responded curtly, leaning out of the elevator to stare at the camera as well, a perplexed expression on his face… “Is there something you’re looking for..?”  
  
“What..? Uh, no… no”, he muttered, stepping away from the camera and back to the elevator… Someone had to be gaslighting him, there was no way the AI was tracking him, it wasn’t _programmed_ for that… If Harlan knew anything, he wasn’t saying it, and Carlos wasn’t going to make himself look like a fool by asking about it.  
  
“Then come with me, please, I’m on a tight schedule”, the older man stepped back from the doors, ushering Carlos in, and then scanned his badge just under the elevator buttons. “You have the same access now, any time you need it, you were added to the system this morning.”  
  
As soon as it read his badge, he pressed one of the previously unlit buttons, which would take them to the bottom floor. There was silence between them, as it descended, not once stopping for another passenger.  
  
“Trish Hidge, she uh, she told me you would fill me in.” He murmured, trying to break the awkward silence. He wasn’t sure why, and perhaps it was just paranoia, but he felt intimidated by him, though he’d done nothing wrong…  
  
“Yes, right, about your job… You’re going to be pretty busy at first, Scientist, he hasn’t had a full crew in almost a year now, and no full time technicians or programmers for the last month,” Earl responded, leaning against the handrails as they went down. “Well… _It_ hasn’t had a crew. You know”, he begrudgingly corrected, as if it was expected of him, and he would face repercussions if he didn’t.

Carlos found that odd… He hardly cared, it wasn’t as if he took offence at all in referring to programs by pronouns, it wasn’t harming anything. _Especially if C.E.C.I.L. really is what they claim it to be… A sentient AI should be called whatever they want to be called…_  
  
“Yes, she told me they’d left, but not why?” he asked, watching the lights above the elevator door, listening for each ‘ding’. They were two floors away from the last now. His palms were sweating, and his mouth felt dry.  
  
Harlan sighed, the subject apparently weighing heavily on him.  
“Right… that,” he muttered, rubbing temple… “There was an incident awhile back… I can send you the files, I’m sure you’ll need everything about it…”  
  
“An... incident?”  
  
“Last year, it, uh… Doesn’t always obey, has a mind of its own… That came to the attention of those up top awhile ago, that’s why you’re here… Half his team left when they thought they might be forced to pull the plug…” He could tell this struck a chord with Harlan. The officer seemed distant, looking for more official, clinical, terms for something he had been personally involved in. “I’ll forward you the details… It’s really nothing… There’s been legal debate, some threats to reprogram… But all that’s happened before...”  
  
The elevator finally came to a stop, and the doors swung open. Right outside the elevators, it seemed no different than Carlos’s residential floor, but a right turn down the hall revealed a far different space.  
It seemed like a maze down there, though almost abandoned save for a few workers, who greeted Earl with a warm ‘good morning’. Their reactions to Carlos were… different, however. Some just nodded, and went on their day, but others were giggling, whispering, like they were all in on something.  
  
“Cee- C.E.C.I.L is kept a few rooms away,” Harlan stated dryly, as he handed Carlos an earpiece similar to his own. “This is, mainly, for emergencies only. Please wear it while you’re on duty.”

“Mainly?”  
  
“Well, that’s the part I should warn you about... We have a separate emergency alert system, for workers on this level.. If something is wrong, we hear it first, and try to contain it. No one wants to panic the citizens up top…  But _our_ system rarely needs to be implemented. So, C.E.C.I.L . has been using it lately… Think of it like a slow news day, when the stations fill time with local stories… C.E.C.I.L. tends to do that, he talks about the colony, primarily those of us who work with h- it, I mean.”  
  
Again, Earl flinched referring to C.E.C.I.L. in such a way, but tried to hide it. And again, Carlos said nothing.  
  
“So you allow it to broadcast? … And it does that on its own?” he asked, with genuine intrigue, as he watched Earl scan his badge at the door before them, and enter a keycode.  
  
“Yes, usually only twice a month…. Cecil already knows about you, actually,” Harlan added, with mixed emotion.  
  
This time Carlos could CLEARLY hear the emphasis on a name, rather than an acronym. He seemed warmed by the name, like one speaking of a close friend, or something more. But everything else he said carried a certain air of disgust, or perhaps just confusion.  _… Or jealousy?_  
  
Carlos leaned in, and scanned his own badge, and the final doors slid open before them, revealing a web of computers, cables, and walls of monitors. Carlos was awestruck, but still responded to Earl, only now realizing the _weight_ of what he’d said just before.  
  
“Of course, it would have received that information-“Carlos stuttered, as he stepped into the large chamber.  
  
“No, I mean he KNOWS”… There was a crooked smile on the taller mans face, as he continued, “Cecil controls all the surveillance cameras down here. They record everything, around the clock. If he spots anything suspicious, the information is turned over to us, or if it’s on the surface, to the police. Otherwise the footage is stored away, and human eyes never see it at all. So, it’s really not as invasive as it sounds, he’s pretty indifferent. He won’t give up anything if a warrant isn’t presented, so it doesn’t really interfere with anyone’s privacy…  Anyway, he was talking about you last night, sent the signal out to a few of us… well, to this whole floor, and me.”  
  
“It- _he_ , uh, he mentioned me over the alert system?”  
  
“Yeah… More like he gushed about you. Anyway, Cecil and I aren’t on the best terms right now… So, I won’t stay long…” Earl passed all the monitors surrounding them, to approach a sort of pod near the center of the room. Carlos remembered this, from the photographs and articles this morning… That tall, metallic, human sized pod would have been a spot for C.E.C.I.L. to recharge, had Dr. Palmers team received funding for the wireless project…  
  
 “His body is in sleep mode most of the time, conserves energy that way… But he’s never really _off_ , unless they’re running tests.  This just gives him down time, I guess. He’s supposed to come out of it if he detects something wrong, but I don’t really know how it works. I’m not _Mr. Scientist.”_ He tapped gently on the pod, and Carlos could hear a click as it unlocked, and the form inside blinked to life.  
  
The first thing Carlos was the purple eye, painted on the torso of the android. He recognized it _immediately_ as the same mark on Dana’s hoodie, the one he’d found so familiar…  
 _It must be her moms, if she worked down here…_ The eye was one of the only changes he could spot, between the form before him, and the photographs he viewed this morning.  
The second thing he noticed was CECILS head, and the soft purple light now emanating from it.  
 The lights on the front of the head flickered like eyes opening, as if a consciousness had newly entered it, breathing life into otherwise empty steel. Earl kept his back turned to Carlos, standing between him and the machine, his hand still resting on the now open pod doors, as he leaned in closer to it.  
  
He could tell Earl was whispering something to the android, but he could not make out what, and he didn’t intend to eavesdrop. Besides, all he could hear was the soft hum coming from C.E.C.I.L.s body, as it started up.  
 _His cooling fans sound a bit loud_ , Carlos noted to himself. He should look into that, once introductions were out of the way.  
  
“Well… your perfect scientist is here now,” Earl finally said, speaking up enough for Carlos to hear.  
As Harlan spoke, he finally stepped away from C.E.C.I.L.s body, to let Carlos see clearly.  
  
 _This_ was it. C.E.C.I.L.   
_This_ was his chance of a life time.  
  
And it stared at him, or seemed to, he corrected himself.

_Anthropomorphizing,_ he reminded himself.   
_Can’t do it, don’t cloud your judgment. You want to know the truth,_ not _hearsay._  
  
But it _did_ stare at him, with the lenses on its helmet, almost like it was awestruck at the sight of him.  
 _That makes two of us_ , Carlos thought, stepping closer.  
  
“… So… You’re C.E.C.I.L?” He nearly chirped, his voice cracking a bit.  
He adjusted his glasses, making what he hoped was eye contact with the machine in front of him.  
He knew that’s what the cameras on the head were for, but he could also feel the gaze of other lenses, surrounding him, all focused on him…   
  
_It’s just_ curious. _It’s programmed to be._  
  
Out of the corner on his eye he could see one of the nearest monitors flickering to life, loading _something…_ The pages flashed by too quickly to tell, but-  
  
 _Oh god, is it running a search?_  
Seeing his full name flicker on the screen, Carlos’s assumption was confirmed.  
 _Well,_ that _was more intrusive than expected._ But once more he reminded himself, it was harmless curiosity. It wasn’t like it understood that this behavior might be inappropriate.  
 And if he was to be working with the machine from now on, seeing it daily, of course it would want to know who he was…  
  
“… yes?” was the response Carlos finally received, coming from both the android itself, and several other speakers hidden throughout the room … The voice was the first thing about C.E.C.I.L. that Carlos _truly_ hadn’t expected.  It was smooth, sonorous, but with an anxious inflection, indicative of higher thought, of emotion. He was shocked no one had mentioned such a voice to him before.  
  
“I’m Car- Uh, I guess you know who I am?” Carlos chuckled awkwardly, and offered his hand, out of instinct. The android stepped further out of its cocoon, a tangle of heavy chords trailing behind it, from its head, its back, and hips, and it shook his sweating hand firmly. C.E.C.I.L.s hand was cold to the touch, but the cool metal warmed quickly.  
  
“Yes! You’re Carlos, you’re the new scientis- Well, of course you are, Dana said-“  
  
“Wait, how do you know Dana?”, he asked, cutting off the androids ramblings.  
  
“Her mother was my previous technician. Dana has been using her mothers ear piece without proper authorization for several years now… … … Also, she is beginning her internship on this floor in several days. So perhaps, given time, she will actually begin work in _here_ … She said you were here to ‘do science’?”, it asked, leaning close. The helmet was all lit up now, images flashing… Question marks, the occasional heart.

  
“U-uh huh, I suppose so... I’m your _new_ technician”, Carlos responded, admiring the lights and pixelated images dancing over the helmet, where its face would be, if it had one. “And I look forward to working with you”, he added enthusiastically. _You’re one of the most important androids in human history_ , he didn’t add.  
  
During all this he’d almost forgotten Officer Harlan was still there, until the older man cleared his throat.  
“I think you can handle the rest down here?” He said, more to C.E.C.I.L. then Carlos, but the android did not respond. In fact, it seemed almost _cold_ towards the man.  
  
“I thought so”, Harlan murmured, a melancholy tone in his voice… “Well, Carlos he’s all yours now, until they find fill ins for the rest of the crew. Take care of him.”  
  
And with that, he turned and left, leaving Carlos alone with the very heart that kept the colony alive.


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, sorry, this isn't really a chapter, but I'm 90% sure I'm abandoning this fic. I don't feel like I even should write an ace carlos to begin with, since I've been informed it's problematic. I still don't understand why, entirely, but I am trying to. I'm not going to do something if it upsets people, or takes away what makes these characters as powerful representation as they are...

I'm kind of leaving the fandom actually, for now. I might show back up. If i do ever come back, and actually write the rest of this, then it's getting a lot of overhaul so I can leave their relationship vague romantic, instead of ace, in future chapters. That way in that still fit more in WTNV canon, though not contain sexual content, leaving any headcanon open, so as not to attack sexual headcanons.

Again, sorry for the not chapter. ):

Just tired, worn out, and trying to clean up each section of the WTNV fandom I've touched. I do not want to be damaging, or problematic.  
I'm sorry.


End file.
